That Light is Bliss, that Light Am I - Meditation Practices

A meditation practice session recently led by the Warden of Shanti Sadan is available to listen to here. The periods of silent meditation have been reduced on this recording and you may pause the playback at these points. Notes on the practices are also available here.

Our Highest Potential and the Ox-herding pictures

A talk was given recently at Shanti Sadan on Our Highest Potential, using as illustrations the Ox-herding pictures from the Zen tradition, with explanations from the non-dual perspective. The talk considers many steps in the spiritual enquiry, including the apparent re-appearance in the world of the illumined Knower of Truth. It is available to watch here.

(If you have difficulties downloading or playing this file, here are alternative ways to view.)

New Publication: Understanding That Thou Art

The newly-published Understanding That Thou Art is a translation by Hari Prasad Shastri with a commentary of Shankara Acharya's Vakya Vritti. This is an important and accessible text on what Shri Shankara treats as the central statement - That Thou Art - around which all the non-dual teachings revolve. Dr Shastri's translation and commentary bring out the full significance of the text and its practical implications. More details.

"The supreme wisdom is to know that there never has been a gulf between man and God, or Brahman, and that this Lord is the very self of the individual when rightly understood. There seems to be a gulf, and the poet Milton has referred to that 'distance immeasurable where God abides'—in other words, very far away from this human realm. But this is not the truth, for the spiritual reality is nearer than the nearest, closer to us even than our mind..."
From The Bridge Leading to God-Consciousness in the Spring 2013 issue of Self-Knowledge.

"This Self is one alone, one in all. It transcends both the inner and outer world, and is universal. All that we experience owes its manifestation and knowability to the light of that supreme Self, the motionless light that illumines all intellects and is illumined by none. The aim of Adhyatma Yoga is to awaken us to our intrinsic identity with this infinite Reality..."
From The Immovable Wisdom in the Winter 2013 issue of Self-Knowledge.

"One of the great statements of spiritual Truth found in the Upanishads: Vijnanam Anandam Brahman, Consciousness Bliss Brahman, the supreme goal. That is to say: The absolute reality (Brahman) is consciousness (Vijnanam) and bliss (Anandam) and that is our true nature.."
From Direct Experience of Reality in the Autumn 2012 issue of Self-Knowledge.

"Spiritual people love life more deeply and meaningfully than those who make life serve their narrow self-interest. This is because a spiritual person sees something miraculous in the whole experience of living. But if we want to come into touch with the beauty that never fades, and the peace that never wanes, we have to dive deeper into ourselves, and approach, so to say, the divine pearl of truth at the core of our being...."
From Discovering the Bright Pearl Within in the Summer 2012 issue of Self-Knowledge.